Actors who are willing to wear the golden handcuffs create that small group of working actors who make a good career doing what they love. Younger actors see staying locked into a show as a risk. You don't get the exposure or glory of doing the next new thing. I see why some older actors have stayed with shows for a long time. It's security. Richard Poole doesn't have to worry about not having a job if it's a rough winter.

And these aren't actors who will necessarily get better or more high profile roles in other shows. We're not talking about people who are turning down the lead in a new musical to remain in the ensemble of CHICAGO. We're talking about people who would likely go from one ensemble to the next, for the most part. And when you've got a mortgage payment and a car payment and your kid's tuition is due, stability has its perks. As Donna Marie said, "I love seeing my 401(k) get bigger."

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body

I'm dying to see Donna Marie Asbury go on as Velma. (I check the Broadway Understudies twitter feed constantly and even walk by the theater. I want to see her and Bianca together.) I saw Donna Marie Asbury as Evita on the national tour when I was about twelve-and she was AMAZING. She had the pipes, the acting ability and she could dance the role extremely well. I really liked her then and would love to see her Velma.

There's a belief that industry people forget about you if you stay in one job too long; Larry Kert said that he thought he would have become a real star if he hadn't stayed with West Side Story as long as he did.

I imagine that Donna Marie Elio (now Asbury), back during Merrily and Smile, hoped to become a star like Gwen Verdon or Chita Rivera. But that doesn't happen to most performers, and she's fortunate to have a long-term job, even though the only people who will know her name are hard-core Chicago enthusiasts.

It depends what you're going for. A lot of ensemble members don't have the pipes/acting chops to play a lead role, etc. And they know that. So instead of bouncing around to each Broadway show. Why not stay put? It totally makes sense to me. And being in the ensemble of a show is a less daunting task 8x a week then to be the person out front and center.